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In a game of many firsts, the University of Denver finally got to exhale, earning its first victory in the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament in a hard fought battle against Villanova University at a soldout Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
The Pioneers (14-2) outlasted the Wildcats (11-5) on a cold, cloudy afternoon, overcoming an 8-5 third quarter deficit to win 13-10 in front of a record crowd of 2,575 spectators that came to witness the first NCAA game to ever be played west of the Mississippi River.
DU advances to play Johns Hopkins on Saturday in the NCAA quarterfinals in Hempstead, N.Y. The game begins at 12:30 p.m. MT and can be seen on ESPN 2 and ESPN3.com.
The victory signifies a change in culture across the landscape of collegiate lacrosse, as the Pioneers become the first team west of the Mississippi to win an NCAA tournament game, halting the East Coast trend of the sport.
“We are going into uncharted water, going up against one of the most storied programs of all time,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “We don’t get a chance to play teams like [Hopkins], and to have the opportunity in the NCAA quarterfinals against Johns Hopkins, this is a dream.”
The Pioneers used a 5-3 third quarter surge to tie the game at 10-10 going into the final quarter. In the fourth, DU dominated the Wildcats, smothering them on the defensive end and shutting them out to finish the game on a 3-0 run.
The play of the game came with 8:30 remaining, when junior defender Brendan DeBlois intercepted a Villanova pass, which shifted the possession back to a Denver offense that had just scored to go up 11-10.
Junior Mark Matthews made a move toward the goal, but pulled out at the last second, allowing the Pioneers’ offensive midfielders to come on to the field. His patience paid off when freshman midfielder Jeremy Noble slid past a defender and pump-faked goalie Billy Hurley to get an easy shot, scoring his fourth goal of the night and putting Denver up two goals with under seven minutes to play.
“Whenever we can get a goal and make a defensive stop right after that and get it back to our offense, it puts a stop in the momentum that they’re trying to build,” said freshman goalie Jamie Faus. “That steal from Brendan was pivotal to the game.”
The steal may have been pivotal, but the decision to hold back on the offensive end was defining of a maturing team that has now won 11-straight games.
“Each game this year, Mark has shown more maturity and more poise,” said Tierney. “To do what Mark did, to make a better decision like that, shows his maturity.”
Junior Alex Demopolous added his second goal of the night to put DU up 13-10 minutes later, but the Wildcats were still plagued by the turnover they committed when only down a goal.
“When they got the two-goal lead that changed the complexion of the game,” said Villanova head coach Michael Corrado. “I thought we had a chance to tie the game right after they went up one, but they made the plays [in the fourth quarter], which made it a tougher climb for us.”
Noble finished with a team-high, and career best, six points on four goals and two assists, while Matthews recorded four points on three goals and an assist.
Although Matthews and Noble led the Pioneers throughout the second half, erasing the three-goal deficit in a span of 41 second during the third quarter, it was Faus’ stellar play during the fourth that allowed Denver to clinch its first NCAA victory.
“They came out firing and they gave us all we could handle,” said Faus, who recorded six of his 13 saves in the fourth quarter. “We were a little shell-shocked because we didn’t know what they were going to be like, but once we settled in and stuck to what we do best, it came together in the end.”
Entering the game, Denver was 0-3 in NCAA games, losing 9-7 last season to Stony Brook in the first round. Now that they have taken the proverbial monkey off their backs, the team can continue to build momentum in the Rocky Mountain region and across the country.
“I’m speechless; I can’t believe it’s happening in our second year,” said Flint. “People will begin to respect us I think, so it’s a monumental win for a lot of reasons.”
Tierney admitted that his team was distracted by the fact the program had yet to win in the postseason, but said they overcame the adversity.
I don’t think you can tell 18-year-olds not to pay attention to all the storylines and the coverage,” said Tierney. “Was it a distraction? Yes, it certainly was, but they don’t know about burden, all they know is wanting to get better.”
No player exemplifies the desire to get better than Noble. The freshman started the game in replacement of Eric Law, who was moved to attack earlier in the week after captain Todd Baxter was ruled out with a high ankle sprain.
In the third quarter, Villanova’s Will Casertano blew past Noble to score his second goal of the game and extend the Wildcat’s lead to a game-high three goals, 8-5. Noble responded almost immediately, scooping up consecutive ground balls and adding a pair of second half goals.
“I was pretty mad at myself for letting my man get top-side,” said Noble. “I knew I had to step up and make up for it, so that’s what I did.”
The mixture of composure, desire, patience and redemption is why the Pioneers are still playing this late into May for the first time in school history.
They’re not where most experts thought they’d be at this point – resting at home – rather, they are defying the critics expectations as well as their own.
“Not in a million years,” said Noble when asked if he ever thought this would happen in his first year at DU. “I didn’t expect this [success] at all.”
Tierney, a six-time national champion, has become synonymous with winning in lacrosse, but even he can’t exactly define what this win means to DU.
“We can probably answer that question 10 years down the road,” said Tierney when asked about the magnitude of the game. “What this win does now is it continues to make them believe they can be one of the big boys, and that has been our mantra all year: we don’t want to just play with the big boys but be considered as one of the big boys. It takes a while to become a top program, but we will have another opportunity next week to get to that next level.”
